and noncombatants; at the unprincipled employment
of such trickery in war as the use of asphyxiating
gases, or at the insulting and ill-treating of those
of their army who have been captured by the Germans.
It is at the English, not at the French or the Belgians,
that Germany is striking in this war. Her whole
attitude shows it. British statesmen knew this
from the beginning, but the people were slow to believe
it. But escaped prisoners have told that they
were discriminated against. I have talked with
a British officer who made a sensational escape from
a German prison camp. German soldiers have called
across to the French trenches that it was the English
they were after.
In his official order to his troops to advance, the
German Emperor voiced the general sentiment.
“It is my Royal and Imperial Command
that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate
present, upon one single purpose, and that is
that you address all your skill and all the valour
of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous
English and walk over General French’s contemptible
little army.
“Headquarters,
“Aix-la-Chapelle,
August 19th, 1914.”
In the name of the dignity of great nations, compare
that order with Lord Kitchener’s instructions
to his troops, given at the same time.
“You are ordered abroad as a soldier
of the King to help our French comrades against
the invasion of a common enemy. You have to perform
a task which will need your courage, your energy,
your patience. Remember that the honour of
the British Army depends on your individual conduct.
It will be your duty not only to set an example of
discipline and perfect steadiness under fire, but also
to maintain the most friendly relations with those
whom you are helping in this struggle.
“The operations in which you are
engaged will, for the most part, take place in
a friendly country, and you can do your own country
no better service than in showing yourselves in
France and Belgium in the true character of a
British soldier.
“Be invariably courteous, considerate,
and kind. Never do anything likely to injure
or destroy property, and always look upon looting
as a disgraceful act. You are sure to meet
with a welcome and to be trusted; your conduct
will justify that welcome and that trust. Your
duty cannot be done unless your health is sound.
So keep constantly on your guard against any excesses.
In this new experience you may find temptations
both in wine and women. You must entirely resist
both temptations, and, while treating all women
with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy.
“Do your duty bravely,
“Fear God,
“Honour the King.
“(Signed), KITCHENER,
Field Marshal,”
A LUNCHEON AT BRITISH HEADQUARTERS
